I was reading Rogers Cadenhead’s books long before I ran into his blog, and while he and I are moreoreless on the opposite side of the political spectrum, I respect the fact that he tends to think political issues through — Cadnehead is no knee-jerker.
But for the life of me I can’t understand his latest effort, urging against the election of Harry Reid as the Senate Minority Leader. A number of other liberals such as Kevin Drum are also trying to rally against Reid. But why?
They seem to think that since Tom Daschle was narrowly defeated in South Dakota — and was widely perceived by Democrats to put his own re-election interests above sticking it to Bush — that it is imperative that the minority leader be from a blue state. Reid is from Nevada, which went for Bush this year.
But comparing Reid to Daschle is silly. The last time Daschle returned to the Senate he barely beat challenger John Thune — in fact, some Republicans argue that his victory was the result of vote fraud. I don’t repeat that claim to assert its truth or falsity, but just to point out that Daschle barely won last time and he could easily have lost that election. He did lose on November 2, but again barely — could have went either way.
Reid, however, enjoyed enormous support, garnering 61 percent of the vote on Tuesday even while Bush won Nevada. Moreover, Reid won’t have to face re-election until 2010, long after Bush is gone. Reid has no reason at all to play the same game that Daschle did.
Setting blue state residence as the main criteria for Minority Leader would do nothing but project weakness — I’m sure Karl Rove would love nothing better than for Democrats to publicly acknowledge that they are so afraid of him that they don’t want to risk a Senator from Nevada as the Minority Leader.
So true. Honesty and evrytehing recognized.